California Bar Essays

All in all, the first 10 days of studying ended up being a wash because I started with Themis’ method, realized it wasn’t optimal for me, and spent a few days freaking out and reorienting myself.After doing some more research into the resources that were available, I created a new plan and got a fresh start on June 3.Now, a year later, I want to share with you the mistakes made, lessons learned, and what I would do differently if I could rewind to my first day of bar prep.

Rather, I hope that this post can help demystify the nuts and bolts of preparing for the exam.

According to the State Bar, the California Bar Exam is given twice each year in February and July (click here and here for details).

As any law student can tell you, I basically took the required 1L courses and not much more, so I was learning a crap ton for the first time.

While this definitely was a challenge, I wouldn’t tell my 1L self to maximize my 2L and 3L course loads to include these missing subjects.

I also felt like the sheer number and volume of tasks was unreasonable (and honestly, counterproductive past a certain point) for the average person to complete.

A simple Google search for “Themis” and “75%” will show the reality that not all students complete 100%, let alone 75%, of the program.

I hadn’t taken Real Property or Evidence during law school, and I definitely believed I had forgotten everything I learned in 1L.

How in the world would I learn 13 subjects in 2 months??

However, after a few days, I quickly realized that the Themis study schedule wasn’t working for me.

While I liked that the video lectures were broken up into 20-30 minute chunks and that my daily schedule automatically adjusted depending on my progress from the previous day, my dissatisfaction with the one-size-fits-all program pushed me to create my own study plan.